Broadcast reception has been popular for a long time, both for audio programs and television (TV) programs. A broadcast receiver may receive one or more broadcast programs from several broadcast stations. However, a user may not always be aware of the broadcast stations that can be received. Especially when travelling, reception conditions may change frequently, and it may not be visible to a user which broadcast stations provide a sufficient signal quality to be received. Thus, it may not be visible which broadcast program or broadcast programs may be available.
In order to provide information about broadcast stations in reach, a broadcast receiver may scan a broadcast transmission band for other radio broadcasts. Further, a radio broadcast may supply supplementary data which describes aspects of the broadcast transmission. Such supplementary data may for example comprise information related to the broadcast station, such as the broadcast station name. Supplementary data may further comprise information related to the transmitted broadcast program or programs.
Radio broadcasts may comprise analogue and digital broadcasts. For example, radio broadcasts may comprise analogue audio transmission, such as frequency modulation (FM) transmission, or digital audio broadcasts, for example digital audio broadcasts according to the Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) standard, the DAB+ standard, the Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) standard, and/or the like. Further, broadcasts may comprise audio and/or video data, for example broadcasts according to the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard, the Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) standard, the MediaFLO™ standard, and/or the like. Digital video broadcasts may for example comprise supplementary data in form of an electronic service guide (ESG) or in a file transmission.
In a frequency modulation (FM) radio transmission, supplementary data may be transmitted according to the Radio Data System (RDS) or Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) protocol. The supplementary data may for example be related to technical aspects of the network. The supplementary data may also be related to the content of the radio transmission. For example, the Radio Text Plus (RT+) extensions to Radio Text (RT) or enhanced Radio Text (eRT) describe information related to the content, for example a media title, such as a title of a piece of music, the title of a program, or the name of a performing artist or composer.